Soccer
Is Croatia's disallowed goal proof that technology has gone too far for the beautiful game?
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It's easy to be labelled as 'that guy' when you start complaining about the merits of modern football and the pros and cons of the current role of technology in the game.
In many ways, we've seen technology progress the sport in recent years, and few would now live without things such as goalline technology and even some parts of the VAR system.
Ultimately, VAR still has major flaws and is often more of a passing-the-buck exercise. Where another referee's view, who has multiple angles and the chance to slow action down to an inch of its life, gets to make their own subjective decision.
VAR remains a constant debate among football fans, both for and against its existence, but have we got to the point where 'technically right' decisions are just taking yet more enjoyment out of the elements we love the game for?
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The brush of a ball
The latest example of an eye-rolling decision against the technology game in Thursday night's World Cup clash between Portugal and Croatia.
A rip-roaring affair that swung to and fro over the 90 minutes, but looked to be going the way of the Portuguese until Josko Gvardiol netted a 104th-minute equaliser, sending the Croats into bedlam.
But before we could all get excited about the prospect of another half-hour battle between the two sides, there was the dreaded VAR check, and usually you know what is coming next.
Following a review, the goal was ruled out due to the faintest of touches from Igor Matanovic, meaning Mario Pasalic was then in an offside position before assisting the goal.
Cue deflation in the stadium from the Croatian support, and many neutrals at home who wanted more from these two sides and not the headline to be a VAR call.
However, here we are, hours after the game, and the bad taste in the mouth comes from a decision that was 'technically right' but feels 'wrong' for the way we consume the sport we love.
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We don't need robots
Firstly, the bugbear of any football fan over VAR is still how long it takes. For me, if a decision takes more than a minute to decide, then the term 'clear and obvious' does not apply. But we all know how that phrase has been tossed to the wayside in favour of finding the exact moment or issue the officials need to overturn something.
For this decision, VAR also used the latest shiny tool in their robotic armour, the Snickometer, which comes from the Connected Ball Technology inside the Adidas Trionda.
Widely used in cricket, it can detect the motion of the ball and determine if it has been touched and then show us the results by way of a fancy graph.
And, having reviewed Gvardiol's goal, it was evident there was a touch on the ball that does favour Croatia and therefore the 'right' call was to rule it offside.
A slight brush of the head means, by the laws of the game, it was right, but is this what football has come to and what VAR was brought in to decide?
In a game that is at its best when it's free-flowing and all-action, do we want to be making decisions on a ball almost just kissing the head of someone to take the enjoyment out of a moment we all live for?
This isn't a game played by robots, where every instant must be played out to the smallest minutest correctness; it's a game where sporting talent excels and, like any sport, can often be decided by some fortune or misfortune.
Obviously, if you're offside, then you're offside, and maybe it's the rules that are the problem and need better defining than the technology.
But it feels like FIFA are constantly finding ways of using newer technology to enhance those rules, which prompts the same arguments over and over again.
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Future of football
Would there have been a massive uproar if that goal had been allowed? It's hard to say. Possibly in the immediate aftermath, but it's not a decision anywhere near the same league as Diego Maradona punching the ball into the net or Frank Lampard's clear goal being over the line in 2010.
It's one pressed upon us because the technology has been made so thorough that we have to stop for several minutes just to see if a strand of hair has led to a change in the decision.
Most football fans want clarity and want to stop the massive errors, and by and large, that's what VAR and other technology have given us.
But are things like Snickowaves and long stoppages really the caveat we have to endure to get the more obvious calls right? It's not really a footballing future we were promised, is it?
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